DOE set to OK $6.5B for Georgia reactors

WASHINGTON — The Energy Department is poised to approve $6.5 billion in lending for two nuclear reactors under construction in Georgia.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is expected to announce the deal at a speech in Washington on Wednesday, a day before he visits the $14 billion Vogtle nuclear plant being built by Southern Co. and several partners about 30 miles southeast of Augusta.

Two government officials familiar with the deal confirmed its details on Tuesday. They asked not to be identified because the deal has not been made public.

The twin-reactor plant is the first new nuclear power construction undertaken from scratch in three decades. The Energy Department tentatively approved an $8.3 billion loan guarantee for the project in 2010.